1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone communication system and method for providing a communication terminal with one or more pieces of advertisement information via a telephone network, and also relates to a server for providing advertisement information.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the existing services for providing advertisement information via a telephone provides advertisement information for a certain period, which starts immediately upon off-hooking of a telephone handset and ends when dialing a telephone number of a receiving party is complete. In this system, a telephone company discounts a telephone fee while it charges an advertisement company an advertisement fee. Japanese Patent Application, After-Examination Publication (Kokoku) No. 8-31929 teaches such technology.
This conventional system, however, distributes the same advertisement information to all the telephone users so that it does not always provide the telephone users with advertisements which they want to have. As a result, the telephone users do not listen to the advertisement information, and the advertisement activities are not useful the advertisement company. This is undesirable in terms of cost-effectiveness of the advertisement.